How well do you think financial education is NOW taught in schools?

MSE_Martin

One of the proudest moments of my career was the day we got financial education on the national curriculum. It started on the English secondary curriculum in September 2014 – though these days a little less than half of schools need to follow that.

Now the All Party Parliamentary Group that I worked with are launching an inquiry to see how it goes and I am giving evidence. So I would be very interested in your views.

So if you have a minute, I'd be grateful if you'd please tell me the following – I am ONLY interested in the situation since Sept 2014 not before.

1. Are you a current teacher / parent of a secondary school child / secondary school child yourself?
2. What type of school is yours – academy, free school, local education authority
3. Are you aware that financial education is taught – if so how often and when?
4. What do you think of the financial education that is taught – is it engaging – what type of lessons are given.
5. What improvements do you think could be made to financial education?
6. Anything else you want to tell me about it.


Thanks in advance.

SaverSavvy123

I have been teaching Personal Finance and Employability skills in schools and colleges around the country for the last 20 years. I am also an active member of many different Financial Inclusion groups and work with groups and charities that help to support people who have little or no financial awareness who did not learn these skills in school. I was ecstatic when your campaign to make financial education a part of the National Curriculum was successful. In reality it is still not happening in most schools for many different reasons. One of the frustrating things for me is that it is part of the Maths curriculum and is being taught by maths teachers but many are just looking at the numbers and mathematical equation of finance. They are not teaching the fundamentals about financial products, the emotions, the services, the long term and short term financial capability skills that are required. Yes it is also part of the Citizenship curriculum but again it is very hit and miss in most schools. I do have much more in the way of feedback and suggestions to the way that financial education is and could be taught. I would be happy to discuss this further if you feel it would be beneficial.

Marktheshark

I would have thought the test should be a simple APR test.
Say Bill borrows £5000 over 5 years at 25% APR.
How much will bill have to pay back ?

How many adults could do this ?
Surely the cost of debt is the best financial lesson needed.

Rain_Shadow

Marktheshark wrote: »

I would have thought the test should be a simple APR test.
Say Bill borrows £5000 over 5 years at 25% APR.
How much will bill have to pay back ?

How many adults could do this ?
Surely the cost of debt is the best financial lesson needed.

I see how you got your name.

SaverSavvy123

I would agree Marktheshark they do need to know how to do the calculations to make sure they are getting value for money, however they need to work their way up to this. Personal Finance should be taught from primary school age and be developed each year enhancing the students financial awareness. We know that they should also be supported at home with this but the problem is most families do not discuss money. They will talk about death, sex, drugs and any other subject but do not want their children to know about their finances and a conversation about money often includes 'how much do you earn', how much is our rent/mortgage' We need to break the cycle that exists in many homes about making bad financial decisions and without education this will not happen. I often say to a class of students that this is one subject you all have in common, whether you will be receiving benefits, student loans, salary or whatever your source of income you need to know how to budget and manage your finances. Last year I ran a teacher development day training teachers on the what, why and how of teaching personal finance lessons. It was free to attend as one of the charities I work with was funding it, it was discussed at the secondary school headteachers meeting who all agreed that this was something they needed to improve. The Local Authority endorsed it and encouraged the headteachers to send someone to attend and out of 100 schools, five attended. This shows the lack of importance given to the subject. Until there is a qualification attached or Ofsted give it more significance during an inspection then it wont change any time soon. I do understand from meetings I have had with the Money Advice Service that they have been in discussions with Ofsted about this. We all want the same thing for our future generation to be more financially aware.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Considering the numbers of kids who are queued at the school office at breaktime because their parents haven't had the money or internet access to be able to top up their lunch accounts again (so they're going to go hungry), I can't help but think lessons on how to get a mortgage or credit card are fairly irrelevant.

Financial education in terms of explaining to teachers (who, like it or not, earn a good salary compared to the other staff in the school and the majority of the families) that demanding the purchase of a £200 uniform from the specified supplier, together with complete sets of revision guides, textbooks, set texts, stationery, trips, sports kit, art supplies and everything else they will be punished for not having, all mid month, is unrealistic when parents are choosing between paying the electricity bill or more food for a kid who has grown seven inches in the last six months would be more appropriate.


Whilst they're at it, explaining that termtime only wages means that people have to take second and holiday jobs might reduce the pressure to stay late unpaid. You get more understanding from the kids if you say 'I stopped being paid at 4pm today' than you do from management when you point out they've instructed you to work a 16 hour day for 7 hours' wages. Probably an easier thing to brush off as all part of the job when you're receiving four thousand pounds a month than when you're getting a quarter of that.


My point is that until teachers fully understand what life is like for the other people in the school community, they aren't going to be teaching what is actually needed for the majority of kids.